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When examining the average college campus, it becomes obvious that students feel rushed from one place to another as they try to participate in class, clubs, and extracurricular activities. One way that students can feel more comfortable and relaxed around campus is to introduce the aspect of gaming. Studies show that “Moderate videogame play has been found to contribute to emotional stability” (Jones, 2014). This demonstrates that the stress of college can be mitigated by introducing the ability to interact with video games. This same concept has been applied in the workplace, where studies have shown that “Gaming principles such as challenges, competition, rewards and personalization keep employees engaged and learning” (Clark, 2020). This means that if we manage to gamify the college experience, students will be more engaged which will increase and stabilize the retention rate of colleges which utilize this type of experience. Gaming allows students to connect with their peers in a casual environment while also allowing them to find resources around campus and find new places to eat and relax. We plan to gamify the college experience by introducing augmented reality in the form of an app. Augmented reality is “. . . a technology that combines virtual information with the real world” (Chen, 2019). College students will be able to utilize the resources and amenities available to them on campus while completing quests that help them within the application. This demonstrates the ability for video games to engage students using artificial tasks but real actions and experiences which help them feel more connected to campus. Our Founders Lab team has developed and tested an AR application that can be used to connect students with their campus and the resources available to them.
veteran homelessness. According to the Veterans Affairs, over 500,000 veterans live
in Arizona, which comprises about 2.5% of the nation’s veteran’s population as of
September 30, 2017. Many veterans have neither the skills nor resources necessary
to integrate back into society after their tour of duty thus leading them into
homelessness.
The goal of this thesis is to research organizations in the Phoenix Metropolitan area
that help to prevent veteran homelessness and/or assist homeless veterans in
obtaining stable housing. Programs and services provided by various organizations
are discussed, along with an analysis which reveals insufficient money, labor, and
space to fully address veteran homelessness, as well as a trend where most
organizations are trying to solve this issue on their own. Recommendations are
provided which include identifying synergies between entities to create greater impact
through partnerships, so society can improve the veteran homelessness situation and
help those who bravely served our country find stability in their personal lives.